Decennial Census: Lessons Learned for Locating and Counting Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers

The Census Bureau provided an action plan on October 30, 2003, and GAO considers this recommendation implemented and closed. The Census Bureau used over a dozen operations to ensure a complete address list and accurate maps for the 2000 Census. To the extent that the operations were properly implemented, their design appears to have been adequate for identifying the hidden dwellings in which some migrant farm workers live. However, GAO found that the operations were not as well suited to overcoming other difficulties associated with locating migrant farm workers, such as language and literacy issues. These challenges were surmounted more effectively by relying on local advocacy groups and others in the community who knew where and how migrant farm workers lived, and could facilitate the Bureau's access to those areas. The Bureau has established 11 planning groups designed to examine lessons learned from Census 2000 and then to coordinate planning, development, and testing activities throughout the decade to reengineer the 2010 census. The 2010 Special Place/Group Quarters Planning Group has reviewed and identified several lessons learned and best practices from Census 2000 and is using this information to develop plans for more effectively locating and counting migrant and seasonal farm workers in the 2010 census.

The Census Bureau provided an action plan on October 30, 2003, and GAO considers this recommendation implemented and closed. The Census Bureau partnered with state, local, and tribal governments as well as religious, media, educational, and other communicate organizations to improve participation in the 2000 census and to mobilize support for other operations. GAO found that the full complement of partnership program staff did not come on board until several months after the Bureau completed the bulk of its address list-building activities. Had the full complement of partnership specialists been available to support the listing operations in 1998 and 1999, they could have encouraged greater participation on the part of local governments and community groups in building a better address list for the 2000 census. The Bureau agreed with GAO's recommendation and, as part of its research and development program for the 2010 Census, is investigating bringing on board additional partnership specialists to assist in a targeted fashion with address list development activities.

The Census Bureau provided an action plan on October 30, 2003, and GAO considers this recommendation implemented and closed. The Census Bureau frequently obtained information about special places and group quarters from local advocacy and community groups. In one instance, the Bureau's Los Angeles regional office partnered with a nongovernmental migrant farm worker advocacy group to improve coverage of housing units in areas populated by many migrant farm workers. Staff members of the advocacy group canvassed communities where they knew migrant farm workers lived and, because they were familiar with the types of structures migrant farm workers used as dwellings and were known by many of the workers, they were able to identify 3,076 addresses, which the Bureau added to its list of housing units to be visited during census follow-up operations. GAO found that Bureau officials knew of no other instances where the Bureau accepted address data from nongovernmental sources. The Bureau is working with advocacy and other groups to identity locations with concentrations of migrant farm workers and will implement improved listing procedures to identify various living quarters in these locations.

The Census Bureau concurred with the recommendation and agreed to, as part of its 2010 Census planning process, explore ways to use geopraphic information to identify areas with large migrant farm workers and other hard-to-count populations, thus allowing the Bureau to better plan operations and target resources. In July 2007, the Bureau informed us that the planning database implementation team had drafted requirements that include thematic maps that will be used to identify areas with large migrant farm worker and other hard-to-count populations.

We consider this recommendation closed and implemented. Bureau Officials told us that, for the 2010 Census, they will be providing training materials in languages other than English for targeted areas.

The Census Bureau provided an action plan on October 30, 2003, and GAO considers this recommendation implemented and closed. The Census Bureau's master address file (MAF) consists of two types dwellings: housing units such as single-family homes, apartments, and mobile homes, and what the Bureau calls "special places and group quarters." A special place is an entity with which a group quarters is linked. For example, a university is a special place and a dormitory is a group quarters linked to the university. GAO found that one of the shortcomings of the automated system that tracked field operations was that it did not show a group quarters that was in one local census office's jurisdiction, if the group quarters were linked to a special place in another office's jurisdiction. Additionally, two sets of instructions that told workers how to handle these situations conflicted with one another. The Bureau's strategy for the 2010 Census will be to focus Special Places and Group Quarters (SP/GQ) frame development, enumeration, and processing activities on the group quarters units themselves, which the Bureau believes will minimize the kinds of enumeration and geocoding difficulties it experienced in instances where a special place and one or more of its associated group quarters were in different local census office areas.

The Census Bureau provided an action plan on October 30, 2003, and GAO considers this recommendation implemented and closed. The Census Bureau used over a dozen operations to ensure a complete address list and accurate maps for the 2000 Census. To the extent that the operations were properly implemented, their design appears to have been adequate for identifying the hidden dwellings in which some migrant farm workers live. However, GAO found that the operations were not as well suited to overcoming other difficulties associated with locating migrant farm workers such as language and literacy issues. These challenges were surmounted more effectively by relying on local advocacy groups and others in the community who knew where and how migrant farm workers lived, and could facilitate the Bureau's access to those areas. The Bureau has created the 2010 Coverage Improvement Planning Group, which is exploring ways to improve the accuracy of census coverage. One of the group's objectives is to improve coverage by identifying the best methods for updating the Master Address File. In the course of this work, the Bureau indicated that it will develop and test new or improved address list updating activities.